This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

After you build a dollhouse or assemble a plastic airplane model, you
can't wait to paint it and stick decals on it. With 3D animation, it's
usually the same feeling! This chapter addresses creating and applying all
manner of materials. One of the delights of 3D animation is trying out all those
"what-if" material choices. What if the car was painted chrome with
red leather trim, or purple plastic with chrome polka dots? Simulating these
surfaces with Maya is a straightforward task when you use Maya's
Hypershadethe material "laboratory." Applying revised materials
and rendering the scene again is a snap. In this chapter, you'll focus
first on the basics of creating materials and then learn how to add complexity
and realism through mapping:

Using Hypershade An overview of Maya's material creating and
editing tool.

Creating materials Building a surface type from scratch.

Using maps Replacing a material's solid color with an image.

Using procedural textures Replacing a material's solid color
with a solid texture created by a mathematical formula.

Bump maps A texturing method that gives the impression of bumpiness
on a surface.

Using maps for any attribute Replacing a solid color or a fixed number
with an image to change the value across an object's surface.

Key Terms

material The definition of all the ways a surface responds to light,
including shininess, color, bumpiness, transparency, and so forth.

shader A shader refers to both the material and the lighting of a
surface with respect to rendering.

Hypershade Maya's material editor.

texture map A 2D image applied across a surface; typically, a bitmap
image, such as a photo of wood grain, that can be tiled.

UV coordinates Position information embedded in a 3D object, used to
size and position a texture map on it. Objects can have multiple sets of UV
coordinates.

environmental textures, environment map A simulated surrounding world
for a material to reflect.

volumetric material A material type for simulating non-solid
materials, such as steam, smoke, dust, or clouds.

procedural texture A 2D or 3D texture created mathematically.

bump map Applying a texture to create the illusion of perturbing a
surface's smoothness.

Phong A material type with sharp, tight highlights.

Lambert A flat material type without highlights.

Blinn A material type with softer highlights.

Anisotropic A material type with non-uniform highlights.

transparency The opposite of opacity; the ability to see through a
material, such as glass.

translucency Semi-transparent, but with a scattering of light, such
as light seen through a green maple leaf.

specular color The component of a material that reflects a light
sourcethe highlight.

self-illumination The material's sensitivity to light; fully
self-illuminated materials are not affected by scene lighting, nor do they emit
light.

Hotkeys to Memorize

Shift+T open Hypershade

Shift+S open the Script Editor

6 enable Hardware Texturing

t show Manipulator Tool

Materials Overview

Novice animators often gloss over applying materials and lighting to scenes.
"Add a few lights, make this red, that bluewe're done!" The
results are typically washed out, flat, and harsh. Much of traditional media
artists' criticism of computer art is based on seeing crude, simple
renderings that emphasize only the limitations of the process. Good art is
possible with Maya, however. It just takes time to get more interesting and
complex shading. CG artists spend as much, if not more, time on lights and
materials as on modeling.

Materials are a critical part of creating attractive images and animation in
a 3D program. Materials interact with lights, so lighting drives some material
choices; for example, if your overall lighting is bright, you might need to make
your scene materials somewhat darker. Generally, you build your scene with
lighting and materials progressing together, with frequent renderings to test
your adjustments. Compensating for the limitations of virtual lights to create
an effective and subtle light layout is an art, one that's discussed in the
next chapter. In this chapter, you'll concentrate on materials.

What do we mean by materials? It's a catch-all term to describe all
aspects of what a surface looks like. At first glance, novices usually notice
the surface colorred, wood brown, metallic silver. To an artist, however,
there are many other factors: An object isn't just metallic silver, for
exampleit's a mirrored smooth finish that relies on the reflected
surroundings for its appearance. In addition to factors of color, shine, and
reflection, Maya also considers transparency, incandescence, translucency,
refraction, bumpiness, and many other user-controlled parameters. Attention to
these details gives your rendered results more subtlety and complexity.